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PM, CJI, Oppn leader meet to pick next CBI chief, Sood front runner
A panel including Indian PM Modi, CJI DY Chandrachud, and opposition leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met to decide the next CBI director, with Praveen Sood as the front runner. Chowdhury dissented, asking why no minority or female officers were shortlisted. The government may consider extending current director Jaiswal's tenure or appointing a new director. The panel also discussed the appointments of the CVC and Lokpal.
A high-powered panel comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury met on Saturday to decide the name of next director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), with Karnataka director general of police (DGP) Praveen Sood being the frontrunner, people familiar with the development said.
The meeting was called as current CBI director Subodh Kumar Jaiswal’s fixed two-year tenure is coming to an end on May 25.
During the meeting, names of three senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers — Sood (from 1986 batch), DGP Madhya Pradesh Sudhir Saxena (1987 batch) and an officer of the UT cadre from 1987 batch were discussed.
However, Chowdhury is learnt to have dissented in writing on the names, and asked why an officer from the minority community or a woman wasn’t even on the shortlist, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“Sood being senior most officer in 1986 and 1987 batch officers is the front runner for the CBI chief’s post,” this person added, asking not to be named.
It is not clear if the government has considered extending Jaiswal’s tenure by another year as the law allows the Centre to give CBI directors and Enforcement Directorate (ED) chiefs three years’ extension, a matter which is pending with the Supreme Court.
Jaiswal took over the reins of the CBI on May 26, 2021. He was the Maharashtra DGP before joining the central agency. During his two-year tenure, one of the key cases investigated by CBI is that concerning the Delhi excise policy 2021-22, in which former deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia was arrested by the agency on February 26 while chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was questioned.
The agency also arrested former ICICI Bank chief executive Chanda Kochhar in December 2022 in a loans kickback case involving Videocon Group’s Venugopal Dhoot.
Besides the name of the new CBI chief, the high-powered panel on Saturday also discussed the appointments of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) and member, Lokpal.
A second person familiar with the matter said that the government wants to extend the tenure of current CVC, PK Srivastava but that Chowdhury has dissented on that as well.
